The Perils of Industrial WorkI. Dangerous work

A. ExtentB. TypesC. Causes

II. The Deficiencies of 19th century lawA. Unrepresented workers

Children, Women, People of color, Prisoners

B. Freedom of ContractC. Minimal regulation

III. CopingA. Finding WorkB. Family economyC. Army PensionsD. Mutual benefit societiesE. Charity

Extent

• 25,000 workplace deaths in 1913

• 700,000 injuries resulting in more than four week disability

Types

• Stress injuries

• Exposure illnesses

• Accidents

• Disasters

Causes• Work itself

• Scale

• Workers– Inexperience– Language– Customary

control– Optimism– Machismo

• Management– Refuse to invest

in safer modes of operation

Children• In 1880, six

percent of children between the ages of 10-15 worked in non-agricultural wage labor

Former mine worker, Neil Gallagher, 18 yo, Wilkes Barre,

PA, 1909

Women

• By 1920, 21.3% of women engage in wage labor

Boston laundresses working “mangler,” 1917

People of Color• Mining

• Railroads

• Sawmills

• Longshoremen

• SteelAfrican-American cartman, 1908

Prisoners• Convicts work in

manufacturing, mining, road construction

• Death rates among leased convicts were approximately ten times the death rates of prisoners in non-lease states

• In 1873, 25% of all black leased convicts died

Colorado prison workers

Freedom of Contract

• Employment at-will• Fellow servant rule• Assumption of risk

Lemuel Shaw

Union station, Washington, DC, 1907

The Minimal State

• USSC voids many regulations

• Local officials often corrupt politicians

• Begins changing during Progressive era

State and city factory inspectors, 1908

Finding work• Thousands of

men become either unemployable or must take lower paying work

Family economy

• Vicious circle

Army Pensions• In 1900, union army

pensions paid $135 per year, or 36% of a laborer’s wage

• In 1900, 35% of white men between the ages of 50-59 earned such pensions– 21% of those 60-65– 14% of those 66-69– 9% of those 70 and up

Civil war pensioners, NYC, 1866

Mutual benefit

societies• Unions,

fraternal societies offer insurance, death benefits

• Pay for proper funeral, widows, orphans

Charity

• In 1889, NYC arrested 612 persistent beggars

• 1/3 of NYC took some charity between 1880-90

– Source: Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (1890)

Blind beggar, NYC, 1890s